How Sustainable is Antarctic Krill as a Raw Ingredient?

[RD.]

If a food uses it in moderation for species that genuinely benefit from it, fine. But when it becomes a cheap marketing ingredient added to everything, that’s where I start to question it.

Nothing cheap about krill, it’s actually quite costly compared to most other marine based sources of protein.
Which is exactly why it was seldom used in the past. One brand (New Life) started its use approx 30 yrs ago, not just as an ingredient, but the main ingredient, and over the years many other manufacturers followed. Most have dialed back on its use, certainly as a main ingredient, but it is and always will be a high quality feed ingredient for tropical fish food.
A lot more benefits than just its amino acid content, especially in natural color enhancing properties. Of course there are many ways that a manufacturer can get around the use of krill, including using far less costly forms of protein/fat, and synthetic color enhancing agents such as synthetic astaxanthin. Carophyll Pink is one example that is commonly used by commercial salmon farms.

 

[Cal Amari]

Just a quick note because I come from a heavy farming community, the rise of ethanol and fuel additives did not cause a shortage of grains that caused starvation. That was likely misinformation or exxageration by the media. All corn is not created equal or used equally, and less than 20% of corn grown in the us goes directly to human consumption, even when adding in the portion that goes to high fructose corn syrup. Most of it went to livestock feed before ethanol, and now a lot goes to livestock feed and ethanol. But you don't eat field corn, you eat sweet corn which is grown differently, more labor intensive, but higher priced. Now if we started turning wheat into fuel, it may impact food supplies, much more commonly used in breads, pastas, cereals, etc etc.

 

[jjohnwm]

Just a quick note because I come from a heavy farming community, the rise of ethanol and fuel additives did not cause a shortage of grains that caused starvation. That was likely misinformation or exxageration by the media. All corn is not created equal or used equally, and less than 20% of corn grown in the us goes directly to human consumption, even when adding in the portion that goes to high fructose corn syrup. Most of it went to livestock feed before ethanol, and now a lot goes to livestock feed and ethanol. But you don't eat field corn, you eat sweet corn which is grown differently, more labor intensive, but higher priced. Now if we started turning wheat into fuel, it may impact food supplies, much more commonly used in breads, pastas, cereals, etc etc.

Well, there ^ ya go again...spin doctors hard at work creating the reality they want you to believe in. C Cal Amari is close enough to the issue to see the truth; most folks will just read the ad copy and propaganda and then go "Gee...that's not good..."


The title of this thread questions the sustainability of the krill harvest, today, now, based upon our current usage of the little critters. It's an unanswerable question, far too limited in scope. Sustainable for how long? Acceptable to whom? At what cost in terms of money and conscience?

The question should be "Is the existence and growth of the human species sustainable on this planet, today, now, based upon our current numbers and foreseeable population growth and rate of resource consumption?" The same factors would need to be considered: sustainable for how long, under conditions that would be considered acceptable by whom, and at what cost?

Nobody wants to address or answer that; almost everybody, in their heart of hearts, knows the answer.

Don't believe it? Good for you! But belief does not affect reality; never has and never will. Take a look around at the reality that exists, that we have created. Then smile and say "Well, that's not good...somebody should do something about that sometime..."

 

[Cal Amari]

John stop dancing around it already and tell us what you're calling your new human meat derived fish food company.

 

[RD.]

Nice sentiments, but get real. If every hobbyist in the world decided to call it a day do you think the krill industry would suffer? There will be no change whatsoever.

If you look down a list, and it's long, of products that krill goes into, yes, aquarium fish food is on that list, but % wise it will be absolutely no where near the levels going into animal foods and health product foods, amongst others.

For a real impact everyone on the planet would have to stop eating sea food of any type, get rid of all their pets, and stop eating meat, and taking health care supplements, and maybe stop doing a bunch of other stuff too!

That might cause a bit of a downward spike in krill production.

This is so true.

One of the main differences between Carophyll Pink & natural forms of astaxanthin, is the cost. Commercial farmers don't use CP because they feel that it "works" better, or has better health attributes, they use it because the petrochemical version costs a fraction of what natural products cost. This is precisely why Cyanotech stopped producing Naturose for aquaculture feed back in 2008, they simply couldn't compete with the cost of the synthetic products. A damn shame, as Cyanotech produces some of the finest natural astaxanthin on the planet - which is now why it's only marketed for human use. Today they are still one of the largest (and IMHO) cleanest/safest producers of spirulina, which last time I checked (yrs ago) they still supplied the aquaculture industry. http://www.cyanotech.com/

Ditto to SA krill products - every brick & mortar health store carries krill supplements, including Walmart. They have been doing so for many years.
In the search of the latest life extension hack humans simply cannot get enough.

If there is damage being done in the ocean, I would not think that the fault lays at the feet of the aquaculture industry, or the tropical fish food industry. The former uses synthetic products; the latter probably doesn't make even a small blip in the overall consumption.

 

[skjl47]

the rise of ethanol and fuel additives did not cause a shortage of grains that caused starvation. That was likely misinformation or exxageration by the media.

Well, there ^ ya go again...spin doctors hard at work creating the reality they want you to believe in. .avatar--xss { width: 21px; height: 21px; line-height: 21px !important; margin-right: 2px; } C Cal Amari @Cal Amari is close enough to the issue to see the truth; most folks will just read the ad copy and propaganda and then go "Gee...that's not good..."

Hello; Back in 2001 I was teaching at a small college. The librarian was tossing issues of respected science journals. I grabbed a few to read. I cut out two articles and saved them for some few years. One was a report from a serious study of the leve system around New Orleans. This was a few years before Katrina. The weak points of the water control system were mentioned. The erosion/removal of low lying semi land which had extended for miles out of the mouth of the river was mentioned. Those lands had been channeled or disturbed to accommodate access to and from the oil pipelines and such. I dug that article out after Katrina. to see if the predictions had been close. They were.

Another was a long piece about the use of corn to make ethanol. Do not know if I still have it. Yes there is a difference between types of corn. Some is grown for direct consumption by people. Some is field corn which can wind up in animal feeds. There are some field corn patch's within a few miles of my home. One les than a mile away. The corn is left on the stalks untill late summer or early fall. The kernels get hard. Too hard for humans.
A large farm about six miles away also process the stalks of the corn. I am not sure exactly what they do but see the big trucks hauling in the fall. I see big piles covered with large tarps. The traps have old tires laying on top.

All the corn can become food. I think the dry hard kernels are or can be ground into corn meal. Some is destined to be animal food to be sure.

If I happen to have saved the articles which I cut from the journals I will look the date & title up.

I do not recall from memory over 20 years ago which sort of corn was used. The gist was it was run thru the same equipment distillers have been using for maybe centuries. A still. Modern industrial stills to be sure.
By the way ethel alcohol can be and is made from wheat grain. From potatoes. From grapes. From rice. Likely from plants not normally considered as human food crops. One of my takes was the equipment to distill corn was common and the skill to run the equipment already refined.

 

[skjl47]

Does corn used to make ethonol fuel increase hunger in people? - Bing

Check out what I just created on Bing Image Creator

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Hello; I have not found a link to starvation, so I retract that claim. There are links to increased hunger.

 

[RD.]

 

[Cal Amari]

This is pretty far afield from sustainable krill harvest, and I don't really care much about the corn industry, so I'm trying not to go down this rabbithole. But the links on your search results are all over 12 years old, and most of the articles end with a question mark, not a statement. Good indicaters they were early fears or speculation. If you search for a definitive example of how, when or where there was a shortage of corn that caused starvation, I'll concede the point. But in that search you will find several summaries of these same speculative articles in your link, and a handful put out by political action groups whose sole purpose is to influence your opinions to their long term goals, not to provide data or insights. The closest evidence I could find towards ethanol causing hunger is that it impacted the price of corn, which could have caused a spike in some food prices, increasing difficulties for those who cant afford to feed themselves. The only other indirect impact it may have had was allocation of fields and resources that could have been used for food crops because the corn for ethanol would pay better.

 

[RD.]

I sense another trip down memory school lane coming …….

In the mean time, I personally never fed corn, to my fish.